I was a teenager the first time I got on a plane. After hearing w-a-y too many horror stories about turbulence and air sickness, I sat down in my seat (luxurious in comparison to today’s torture devices), I pulled out the safety brochure, read it front to back, then grabbed the handy vomiting bag, making sure I was ready for any and all emergencies. Much to my delight, I found that neither item was necessary as I marveled over the thrill of acceleration when the plane lifted off into the sky. From then on, there was no turning back.
After 45 years of travel, I still find it the most exciting way to meet people different from me and experience other cultures. I often encourage my fellow U.S. citizens to travel, especially outside the country, because that’s when you begin to realize that people are the same everywhere; all they want for their families is safety, security, and enough food to eat and water to drink. Yes, different cultures have different definitions of what that may mean to them, but if you take the political/religious/military ideology out of the equation, we all have a lot more in common than we think. It’s harder to label someone as “the other” when you realize that.
Trambling 